“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it" (Deuteronomy 26:1).
The connecting word “and it shall be" links us to the verses that preceded it, the command to remember what Amalek did, “when the Lord your God gives you rest from all your enemies around you," alongside additional requirements imposed upon every Jew as he prepares to enter the Land: “You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt," and “Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way, when you came out of Egypt."
Before the bringing of the first fruits, we are presented with a practical preparation that includes remembering the prohibition against slander and the prohibition against perverting justice against the weaker members of society, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. This remembrance is not confined to the legal sphere alone, but demands active concern for the vulnerable: through the forgotten sheaves, the isolated fruit, and the corners of the field during the beating of the olive trees and the harvesting of the vineyard.
Between Light and Darkness: The Uniqueness of the Declaration over the First Fruits
Don Isaac Abarbanel says that after the Torah mentions the wickedness of Amalek in order to repay him for his deeds, it commands us to remember the goodness we have received from God and to give thanks to His Name by bringing the first fruits.
In order to distinguish between light and darkness, the arranger of the order of the Torah portions established the beginning of the portion with this commandment.
One may add that this is a distinction between a society that knows how to assist the weak and distance itself from divisiveness and gossip, and the evil society in which the Children of Israel lived in Egypt, in the forty-ninth gate of impurity. But it is not enough merely to “turn away from evil", one must also acknowledge the doing of good: “I have removed the holy portion from the house, and I have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow... I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten."
Know where you came from and where you are going: You walk in the Land of Israel in order to distinguish between light and darkness. God gives you an inheritance, but the condition for dwelling in it is remembering your source and conducting yourself accordingly.
“I Am Not Ungrateful", The Obligation to Speak
Thought alone is not enough. With the first fruits of your land, you must go up to Jerusalem. On the way there is time to remember, but upon your arrival: “And you shall come to the priest who will be in those days, and you shall say to him." At this exalted moment, a clear declaration is required.
As Rashi brings in the name of the Sifrei: Tell the priest that you are not ungrateful. Once a year, every Jew goes up to the holy place and declares: I am not ungrateful.
From there, the bringer of the first fruits continues and says: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us." The person’s psychological experience, even if he is the fifth or sixth generation in the Land, an expression of “they should be new in your eyes", is that he has arrived in the Land now. Even if his ancestors struggled, fought, and reached the point at which “the Lord gave you rest from all your enemies," he must feel as though he has just arrived, and give thanks for the great privilege.
The Telling of History and the Omission of the Giving of the Torah
In order to recognize the good, every Jew must know the core of the national history: “An Aramean sought to destroy my father, and he went down to Egypt... and there he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation." “An Aramean sought to destroy my father", in the language of an ongoing present. The bringer of the first fruits recalls God’s kindness even before we became a nation, when Laban sought to uproot everything, and the Holy One, blessed be He, considered his evil intention as though he had carried it out, as the Sifrei and the Jerusalem Talmud explain. Jacob then descended to Egypt, “and the Egyptians did evil to us... and the Lord brought us out of Egypt," until He gave us “a land flowing with milk and honey."
This is puzzling: Why, in this historical core, is there no mention of the giving of the Torah?
On the other hand, the entire passage is built around the obligation to recognize the good. As Abarbanel explains, the fundamental acceptance of God, which is the foundation of perfection, is the belief “that the earth and all that fills it belong to the Lord," that He is our Master, watches over it, and bestows His goodness upon it.
Between the Declaration over the First Fruits and Grace after Meals
My father and teacher, Rabbi Asher Wasertail, of blessed memory, teaches us in Birkat Asher that there is an additional foundation here: ingratitude is akin to a prohibition from the Torah, while gratitude is the crowning purpose of the first fruits.
This is reflected as well in Grace after Meals, whose obligation is from the Torah. In the second blessing, “We thank You," we give thanks for the inheritance of the Land and for the Exodus from Egypt, and we additionally give thanks “for Your covenant which You sealed in our flesh... and for Your Torah which You taught us." The Sages say that anyone who does not mention “a desirable, good, and spacious land, and the covenant and the Torah" has not fulfilled his obligation. Joshua instituted this blessing and included both Torah and covenant, neither of which appears in the declaration over the first fruits.
Why is there a difference?
The commandment of the first fruits: It focuses on gratitude for physical goodness. A person brings the first of the produce of his land and gives thanks for the physical “having" that was created in the Land: “And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the produce of the land."
Grace after Meals: This is a comprehensive prayer instituted by the Sages, encompassing all the gifts of Heaven, the Land, the Torah, circumcision, and life.
The Netziv of Volozhin: The blessing over the Land is a general blessing for God’s kindness toward the nation; the declaration over the first fruits is the personal testimony of the landowner concerning his livelihood and his land, so that he will not say, “My strength and the might of my hand have made me this wealth."
According to the Maharal of Prague in Tiferet Yisrael, the Torah and the Land are not two separate gifts, the Land is the place where the Torah is brought into practice, because it is holy and prepared for God and His commandments. The bringer of the first fruits gives thanks for the Land because it is the physical culmination of the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah.
Similarly, the Chatam Sofer wrote in his Derashot: “The principal fulfillment of the Torah and its commandments is only in the Land of the Living, the Land of Israel."
Rabbi Waldenberg expands upon his words in Tzitz Eliezer, quoting the Chatam Sofer at length:
“It appears that the words of the Chatam Sofer are directed toward those who engage in their ordinary affairs with holiness and who work the land for the sake of Heaven, for His Name and for its own sake. But the matter itself, as the Chatam Sofer teaches us, is exceedingly remarkable and precious. It seems that even the greatest lover of Zion of our generation, according to the concept of our time, who was at the same time an ultra-Orthodox Jew, would not have dared to raise such an idea, certainly not to express it, and all the more so to put such a thought into writing.
“To say that if a person in the Land of Israel says, ‘I will not gather my grain because I am engaged in Torah study,’ this is comparable to someone saying, ‘I will not put on tefillin because I am engaged in Torah study’, because working the land itself is a commandment, by virtue of settling the Land of Israel, in order to produce its holy fruits.
“And if we nevertheless hear words such as these, explicitly emerging in holiness and purity from the mouth of the great zealot who fought the battles of God with a strong hand in the previous generation, the teacher of Israel, our master the Chatam Sofer, of blessed memory, they contain immeasurably more strength, encouragement, and consolation for our brethren who fear God, who organize themselves into associations in order to hold fast to the holy land, work its soil, and bring forth its precious produce."
In other words, working the land of the Land of Israel is itself a fulfillment of the Torah. Therefore, the bringer of the first fruits does not need to mention the Torah.
The holy Or HaChaim adds that while the Torah was given in the wilderness for every place, the Land of Israel is the unique gift given as an eternal inheritance. Bringing the produce is an expression of gratitude for the special bond created through the Land.
A History of Gratitude
Adam, the first man: The first person to know how to give thanks. The Talmud notes that Adam instituted “A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath Day." According to the Midrash, when the Sabbath entered and defended him after the sin, he began by saying, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord." The psalm was forgotten over the generations until it was renewed by Moses. Adam composed it as an expression of gratitude for repentance and atonement.
Moses took care to express gratitude even toward inanimate things. Rabbi Tanchum notes that Moses did not strike the water, which brought forth the blood, or the earth, which brought forth the lice, because the water had protected him in the basket and the earth had concealed the Egyptian whom Moses buried in the sand. This is a moral and educational obligation incumbent upon a person himself.
The Sefer HaChinuch writes that at the foundation of this commandment lies the recognition that a person should repay kindness to someone who has done him good and should not be ungrateful.
The Ramban explains that the verse, “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you strength to accomplish wealth," is a commandment from the Torah to remember the divine goodness and guard against forgetting it.
“You Shall Not Abhor the Egyptian", Gratitude for Generations
A fascinating source appears in the previous portion: “You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land." Rashi explains: “For they were a place of lodging for you in a time of distress."
This is gratitude across generations. Even though Egypt enslaved and oppressed Israel, it still retained a certain merit because it had hosted them. On the basis of this principle, my father and teacher, of blessed memory, permitted himself to visit Germany, the place where he had studied in his youth.
The Torah commands us not to despise an entire people because of something good we once received from them, in accordance with the teaching of the Sages: “Do not throw a stone into the well from which you drank."
Conclusion
The commandment of bringing the first fruits is the central “practical commandment" of gratitude. Maimonides defines it as the command “to recount His goodness that He has bestowed upon us and saved us." The Sefer HaChinuch adds that its purpose is to place the word of God at the forefront of our joy.
True gratitude requires a complete historical memory: from Jacob, through the slavery and the Exodus, to the entry into the Land and the bringing of the first fruits. As the Ramban explains, this declaration contains an affirmation and acknowledgment that the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfilled His oath to the fathers.
The first fruits are proof that a person recognizes that his right to the Land is a gift from God, and in this there is also a wonderful rectification for the rejection of the Land that took place in the sin of the spies.